Baseball game



Feb. 24, 1925. 1,527,931

W. TIENKEN BASEBALL GAME Filed Oct. 17, 1923 WITNESSES V INVENTOR WILLIHM Tzzwzgw 7 M 4 Y A TTORNE YS Patented Fa. 24, 1925-.

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Application ma: October 1?, 192:. Serial Io. 000,110. g 5

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM TIENKEN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of New York,-borou h of Brook- 1 n, in the county of Kings and tate of New ar-k, have invented. a new and Improved BaseballGame, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to -a method and apparatus for playing a ball game.

An object of the 1nvent1on is to rovide a ball game played with dice, whic is very simple in the apparatus employed and in the method whereby the game is played, so that by reason of the very simplicity of the method of playin the ame ismade much more attractive t an if it involved more complicated elements and procedure; Another-object is to provide playing elements so constructed and operated that the plays which occur in the operation of the game are substantially accurate in the percentage of times that they occur with respect to their general occurrence in an actual ball game, so that the playing of the game. is made much more realistic than the average game.

The invention is illustrated in the drawings, of which Figure 1 is a perspective view of a playing board with the playing elements disposed thereon;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of one of the playln elements viewed from a. corner thereo Fig. 3 is a view of the samev element from the opposite corner;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of another plafiying element from one corner thereof;

' ig. 5 is a similar view from the opposite corner;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a threeplay element from one corner thereof; and

Fig. 7 is a similar view from the opposite corner thereof.

The form of the invention shown in the drawings is a preferred form, although it is understood that modifications in the construction and arrangement of the parts and in the character of the materials used may be adopted without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

In the general conce tion of the method of playing and the p a ing elements involved, I employ a plurality of dice, prefer- -read on the turned-u ably three in number. These dice have in appearance such characteristics in the matter of coloring or size as to'distinguish one from? another. The reason for thus distinguishlng the dice is that inthe method of playing, when they arerolled together, they are read in a certain order, and by reason of their distinguishin char'actertistics it is a sim le-iuatter to determine which one to rea first. In the present embodiment of the invention the distinguishing characteristic between the three dice is in their size, each die being of different size from the others.

The three dice are rolled together and the character turned up on the largest one is read. It will be noted that the largest die is provided with six surfaces, because in the preferred form the dice are cubic in form. The largest die is provided with characters representing two balls, two strikes, a foul ball, and one surface is provided with an X, which I choose to call a transfer character or value. When the dice are rolled the surface turned up on the largest die is read and the play is made accordingly. The play is madein any suitable manner on the board 1, which is an ordinary fiat board with shallow walls and on the surface of which board there is marked a playing field 2, and the apparatus may be provided with markers or p ayer figures as is' customary, although these figures are not shown. By using these fi res the pla may be made more realistic. I however, t e surface X on the die 3 is turned up, in accordance with the rules of the game that means that the play should be surface of the next smaller die, which is t e die 4 shown in Figs. 4 and 5. It will be observed that the six surfaces of this die are provided with two numerals -1, one surface marked Bunt, one surface marked with the capital 0, one surface marked with a small 0, and one surface marked with an X. This X has the same meaning as the one previously mentioned on the largest die. The numerals 1 indicate one base hit, in which event the runners advance one base. The large 0 represents an outfield fly in which the batter is out but the runners steal one base. The'small o represents an in-field fly in which the batter is out but the runners hold their bases.

If, however, on this second smallest die the X turns u this indicates that the'third and smallest is should be read. It will be noticed from a consideration of Figs. 6 and 7 that the smallest die 5 is provided with six surfaces of which two are marked with the numeral 3, three are markedwith the numeral 2, and one is marked with the letter H.

-The numerals 3 will be three base hits, in

Of course, it is understood that another way in which the dice could be generally characterized from each other to indicate the relative order in which they are read would be to have them all of the same size and of different colors. It is also understood that various other means can be adopted to distinguish the dice from each other with regard to their order of reading, but I prefer to characterize them by a difference in their sizes because their order is so much more readily apparent by reason of their difference in size.

Therefore, in the operation of the game, the three dice are thrown together and the play is read in accordance with the rules above indicated. For instance, as shown in Fig. 1, which represents one position of the dice, the X or transfer character on the largest die has been turned up so that the play is read from the next smaller die on which the X has not turned up. In the position shown the play is read from the medium sized die on which there is turned up the numeral 1. This indicates a one-base hit in which the runners advance one base and the batter goes to first base. If in this case an X had turned up on the second die as well as the first, then the play would have been read from the turned up surface of the smallest die which, as shown in Fig. 1, has the numeral 3 turned up, this representing a three-base-hit, the runners to advance three bases and the batter going to third base.

Each roll of the dice gives the play on one pitched ball. The standard baseball rules govern the game as far as possible. Preferably the dice are rolled by your opponent, you being the pitcher.

It is, therefore, preferably obvious that I have provided a simple and eflicient base-- ball game in which substantially all the plays which take place in the modern game of baseball can be produced and in which the operation is so simple that the game can be played quickly and is very attractive to those playing it because of its simplicity and the fact that it does not require of them a complexity of plays and a lot of figurin It is also to be observed that the plays w ich occur least frequently in an actual game of base ball, such as home run, two and three base hits, are indicated on the smallest die, which is the least likely to be read in the course of the game; and that one base hits and in and outfield flies, marked on the second smaller die, also do not occur as frequently as the lays marked on the largest die, which are alls, strikes and fouls. In other words, therefore, the frequency with which the various plays occur in this game is substantially the same as the frequency with which they would occur in the average ball game.

What I claim is 1. In combination, a series of dice to be used as playing elements in a baseball game, each of said series of dice being provided with characteristic appearance to denote the order in which the dice are read in the playing of the game, certain of said dice in the order in which they are tobe read being provided with transfer characters which when turned up shift the reading of the play to the next die in' order in the series.

2. A series of dice for use as playing elements in a baseball game, each of said dice having a characteristic appearance indicating the order in which it is to be read, the surface of the die first in order of reading provided with characters indicating the most frequent plays occurring in a baseball game, the surface of the die next in order being provided with characters indicating plays occurring less frequently in the average game of baseball, the surface of the die next in order being provided with characters indicating plays occurring still less frequently in the average game of baseball, the first two dice of the series having one surface each provided with a transfer character which when turned up transfers the reading of the play to thenext die in order.

3. In combination, a series of dice for use as playing elements in a baseball game, each die having a general characteristic appearance to indicate the orderin which it is to be read in the series of dice, the first die in order being provided with two surfaces representing strikes, two surfaces representing balls, one surface representing fouls, and one surface having a transfer, character; the second die in the order of reading being provided with two surfaces representing one base hits, one surface representing hunts, one surface representing out field flies, one surface representing in field flies, and one surface provided with a transfer character; and the third die next in order of reading having two surfaces representing three-base hits, three surfaces representing two-base hits, and one surface representing home runs.

WILLIAM TIENKEN. 

